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Like Clouds and Water: The Natural Way of Manaka Unsui
by Eric Baluja (2001)
When he was a little kid, Fumio Manaka thought ninja were “very cool.” The
legends of their superhuman feats of espionage and almost magical ability to
become seemingly invisible to pursuers filled his comic books and ignited his
imagination.
At that time he had no way of knowing that, by the time he was a teenager, he
would be introduced to and become the student of a headmaster of several
classical Japanese martial traditions... or that some of those traditions would
include the last vestiges of ninjutsu, the techniques of invisibility and stealth
practiced by those Japanese warriors popularly referred to as “ninja.” And he
probably had not even fantasized that, by the time he was fifty, he would have
been granted licensure in these martial traditions, established his own dojo and
international organization, or achieved such a level of skill that he could then
pursue “a freedom of movement and lifestyle that is restricted by nothing.”
It is in this spirit that the man who is now Japan Self Defense Force Lieutenant
Colonel Fumio Manaka has taken the martial name Unsui. Composed of the
characters for “cloud” and “water,” the term is used to describe itinerant Zen monks
whose life of wandering and constant study, “... is characterized by freedom,
spontaneity, humility, and inner strength, plus the resilience to adapt... to changing
circumstances without strain or anxiety.” 1
“‘Unsui’ is a monk or priest in training who is seeking the Way. I think that I will
never be complete or perfect until the day I die,” Manaka Sensei asserts. “I took
this name with the intention of studying and training for as long as I live.”
Lt. Col. Manaka possesses full licensure in Gyokko-Ryu Kosshijutsu (a ryu-ha, or
tradition, of unarmed combat primarily based on soft tissue and pressure point
attacks), Koto-Ryu Koppojutsu (“koppojutsu” literally means “bone breaking art”)
and Togakure-Ryu Ninpo (ninjutsu). He has also been granted teaching licenses
for Kukishinden-Ryu Happo Biken (a branch of the Kuki family martial traditions
that includes several weapons systems in its teachings), Takagi Yoshin-Ryu
Jutaijutsu and Shinden Fudo-Ryu Daken and Jutaijutsu (which include a wide
variety of unarmed combat methods).
However, Manaka Sensei believes, “There is nothing special in receiving these
kinds of things. The ability to master things for yourself or to give birth to new
things is more important.” With this in mind he founded his own dojo and
organization in 1996: the Jissen Kobudo Jinenkan.
The words jissen and kobudo lend themselves to literal translation relatively easily
– “real fighting”, “classical martial ways”. Jinenkan, on the other hand, has shades
of meaning that are not handily described. “The spirit of Zen,” according to Manaka
Sensei, “is accepting that what is, is; what is not, is not. It is the world of Nature
itself. This,” he emphasizes, “is the spirit of the Jinenkan. Our intention is to teach,
through budo [the martial way], the things that are necessary as we go through life.”
First Steps
Although he has called Noda City in Chiba Prefecture, Japan home for most of his
life, Fumio Manaka was born in neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture on December 14,
1945. His family moved to Noda by the time he was old enough to enter elementary
school. He started studying judo in Noda at the age of twelve.
“At the time I started, I just wanted to be stronger,” Manaka Sensei notes. Strength
was an issue because he didn’t have much of it as a child. He remembers being
taken to see doctors practically every two days until he was about ten years old
because he had a weak immune system and was as a result a sickly child. His
parents were so concerned about his condition that they rarely allowed him to
leave the house at all. He finally decided that the only way he was going to get
better was to strengthen himself so, against his parents wishes, he took up
swimming and judo. His other motivation for taking up martial arts was one common
to boys his age: “I did not want to lose if I got into a fight.”
In his second year of studying judo he won first place in individual competition at a
northern Chiba regional junior high school tournament. Masaaki Hatsumi, a
seikotsu-i (a cross between an osteopath and a chiropractor) also from Noda, was
a special guest at the event. When the young Manaka went up to receive his prize
he was introduced to the man who would change the course of the rest of his life.
“The Director of the Board of Education gave me the prize certificate and pointed
to Hatsumi Sensei sitting next to him with the comment that he was a ‘ninja,’”
Manaka Sensei recalls. “When I heard the word ‘ninja’ I could only associate it with
Sarutobi Sasuke [the “ninja” version of Spiderman, more or less] from the comic
books. I thought that sounded cool!” 2
By the time he was twenty, Masaaki Hatsumi had studied and achieved significant
ranks in several modern Japanese martial ways, including karate-do, judo, aikido
and kendo. In his early twenties, however, he decided to start over and take up the
study of the classical Japanese martial ways, or koryu bujutsu. He studied several
traditions including Masaki-Ryu and Asayama Ichiden-Ryu) from various teachers
for almost ten years. According to Hatsumi Sensei his search for a true martial arts
master ended when he met and became the student of Takamatsu Toshitsugu of
Nara in 1957, under whose tutelage he would remain until Takamatsu Sensei’s
death in 1972. Within that time Takamatsu Sensei appointed Hatsumi as his
successor in several of the ryu-ha that he had been made headmaster of by his
own teachers, Toda Shinryuken Masamitsu, Mizuta Yoshitaro Tadafusa and Ishitani
Takekage Masatsugu.
Mr. Hatsumi invited the young Manaka to join his classes once he heard that the
boy was also a Noda City resident. “Hatsumi Sensei recommended that I try it,” Mr.
Manaka recollects, “and I was convinced that it would make me stronger than judo
would.”
He took him up on the offer and showed up at Hatsumi’s home, which also served
as his seikotsu office. What Hatsumi had not realized when he made his invitation,
however, was that the young man was only fourteen. As soon as he found out he
advised the boy to wait a year. Not to be deterred, the young Manaka said, “I came
all this way to see you, so why don’t you show me just a little bit today anyway?”
And that’s how he got started. The teen was so sure that this was what he was
looking for that he quit judo shortly thereafter.
“I was in the middle of my adolescent years,” Manaka Sensei remembers, “when I
wanted to rebel against everything that any adult ordered me to do. Sensei was so
different from the other adults, however. He was not strict or particular about
anything. I wanted to be like Sensei. I wanted to have that kind of open and
accepting heart.” 3
Hatsumi Sensei’s sincerity and openness were inspiring, Manaka Sensei
remembers, “...but the training itself was not fun at all, because all I did was receive
techniques.” He recalls spending the first two and a half years of his study learning
only about punching, kicking and ukemi – falling and receiving skills – which was all
he needed to know to get bounced around by Hatsumi Sensei and the five or six
friends that were training with Hatsumi at the time. “In the beginning,” Manaka
Sensei says, “I was only a guinea pig for their experiments.”
He remembers training in a room in Hatsumi Sensei’s house which was about six
tatami straw mats in size – or little more than a 10’ x 10’ box. “We would move the
furniture and his examining table off to the sides to make space, so really we only
had about two or three mats’ worth of space to train on. If my ukemi was poor, I
would be thrown into the corners of tables and things.” Consequently, his ability to
receive techniques and take hard falls got better very quickly.
Next Page
by Eric Baluja (2001)
When he was a little kid, Fumio Manaka thought ninja were “very cool.” The
legends of their superhuman feats of espionage and almost magical ability to
become seemingly invisible to pursuers filled his comic books and ignited his
imagination.
At that time he had no way of knowing that, by the time he was a teenager, he
would be introduced to and become the student of a headmaster of several
classical Japanese martial traditions... or that some of those traditions would
include the last vestiges of ninjutsu, the techniques of invisibility and stealth
practiced by those Japanese warriors popularly referred to as “ninja.” And he
probably had not even fantasized that, by the time he was fifty, he would have
been granted licensure in these martial traditions, established his own dojo and
international organization, or achieved such a level of skill that he could then
pursue “a freedom of movement and lifestyle that is restricted by nothing.”
It is in this spirit that the man who is now Japan Self Defense Force Lieutenant
Colonel Fumio Manaka has taken the martial name Unsui. Composed of the
characters for “cloud” and “water,” the term is used to describe itinerant Zen monks
whose life of wandering and constant study, “... is characterized by freedom,
spontaneity, humility, and inner strength, plus the resilience to adapt... to changing
circumstances without strain or anxiety.” 1
“‘Unsui’ is a monk or priest in training who is seeking the Way. I think that I will
never be complete or perfect until the day I die,” Manaka Sensei asserts. “I took
this name with the intention of studying and training for as long as I live.”
Lt. Col. Manaka possesses full licensure in Gyokko-Ryu Kosshijutsu (a ryu-ha, or
tradition, of unarmed combat primarily based on soft tissue and pressure point
attacks), Koto-Ryu Koppojutsu (“koppojutsu” literally means “bone breaking art”)
and Togakure-Ryu Ninpo (ninjutsu). He has also been granted teaching licenses
for Kukishinden-Ryu Happo Biken (a branch of the Kuki family martial traditions
that includes several weapons systems in its teachings), Takagi Yoshin-Ryu
Jutaijutsu and Shinden Fudo-Ryu Daken and Jutaijutsu (which include a wide
variety of unarmed combat methods).
However, Manaka Sensei believes, “There is nothing special in receiving these
kinds of things. The ability to master things for yourself or to give birth to new
things is more important.” With this in mind he founded his own dojo and
organization in 1996: the Jissen Kobudo Jinenkan.
The words jissen and kobudo lend themselves to literal translation relatively easily
– “real fighting”, “classical martial ways”. Jinenkan, on the other hand, has shades
of meaning that are not handily described. “The spirit of Zen,” according to Manaka
Sensei, “is accepting that what is, is; what is not, is not. It is the world of Nature
itself. This,” he emphasizes, “is the spirit of the Jinenkan. Our intention is to teach,
through budo [the martial way], the things that are necessary as we go through life.”
First Steps
Although he has called Noda City in Chiba Prefecture, Japan home for most of his
life, Fumio Manaka was born in neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture on December 14,
1945. His family moved to Noda by the time he was old enough to enter elementary
school. He started studying judo in Noda at the age of twelve.
“At the time I started, I just wanted to be stronger,” Manaka Sensei notes. Strength
was an issue because he didn’t have much of it as a child. He remembers being
taken to see doctors practically every two days until he was about ten years old
because he had a weak immune system and was as a result a sickly child. His
parents were so concerned about his condition that they rarely allowed him to
leave the house at all. He finally decided that the only way he was going to get
better was to strengthen himself so, against his parents wishes, he took up
swimming and judo. His other motivation for taking up martial arts was one common
to boys his age: “I did not want to lose if I got into a fight.”
In his second year of studying judo he won first place in individual competition at a
northern Chiba regional junior high school tournament. Masaaki Hatsumi, a
seikotsu-i (a cross between an osteopath and a chiropractor) also from Noda, was
a special guest at the event. When the young Manaka went up to receive his prize
he was introduced to the man who would change the course of the rest of his life.
“The Director of the Board of Education gave me the prize certificate and pointed
to Hatsumi Sensei sitting next to him with the comment that he was a ‘ninja,’”
Manaka Sensei recalls. “When I heard the word ‘ninja’ I could only associate it with
Sarutobi Sasuke [the “ninja” version of Spiderman, more or less] from the comic
books. I thought that sounded cool!” 2
By the time he was twenty, Masaaki Hatsumi had studied and achieved significant
ranks in several modern Japanese martial ways, including karate-do, judo, aikido
and kendo. In his early twenties, however, he decided to start over and take up the
study of the classical Japanese martial ways, or koryu bujutsu. He studied several
traditions including Masaki-Ryu and Asayama Ichiden-Ryu) from various teachers
for almost ten years. According to Hatsumi Sensei his search for a true martial arts
master ended when he met and became the student of Takamatsu Toshitsugu of
Nara in 1957, under whose tutelage he would remain until Takamatsu Sensei’s
death in 1972. Within that time Takamatsu Sensei appointed Hatsumi as his
successor in several of the ryu-ha that he had been made headmaster of by his
own teachers, Toda Shinryuken Masamitsu, Mizuta Yoshitaro Tadafusa and Ishitani
Takekage Masatsugu.
Mr. Hatsumi invited the young Manaka to join his classes once he heard that the
boy was also a Noda City resident. “Hatsumi Sensei recommended that I try it,” Mr.
Manaka recollects, “and I was convinced that it would make me stronger than judo
would.”
He took him up on the offer and showed up at Hatsumi’s home, which also served
as his seikotsu office. What Hatsumi had not realized when he made his invitation,
however, was that the young man was only fourteen. As soon as he found out he
advised the boy to wait a year. Not to be deterred, the young Manaka said, “I came
all this way to see you, so why don’t you show me just a little bit today anyway?”
And that’s how he got started. The teen was so sure that this was what he was
looking for that he quit judo shortly thereafter.
“I was in the middle of my adolescent years,” Manaka Sensei remembers, “when I
wanted to rebel against everything that any adult ordered me to do. Sensei was so
different from the other adults, however. He was not strict or particular about
anything. I wanted to be like Sensei. I wanted to have that kind of open and
accepting heart.” 3
Hatsumi Sensei’s sincerity and openness were inspiring, Manaka Sensei
remembers, “...but the training itself was not fun at all, because all I did was receive
techniques.” He recalls spending the first two and a half years of his study learning
only about punching, kicking and ukemi – falling and receiving skills – which was all
he needed to know to get bounced around by Hatsumi Sensei and the five or six
friends that were training with Hatsumi at the time. “In the beginning,” Manaka
Sensei says, “I was only a guinea pig for their experiments.”
He remembers training in a room in Hatsumi Sensei’s house which was about six
tatami straw mats in size – or little more than a 10’ x 10’ box. “We would move the
furniture and his examining table off to the sides to make space, so really we only
had about two or three mats’ worth of space to train on. If my ukemi was poor, I
would be thrown into the corners of tables and things.” Consequently, his ability to
receive techniques and take hard falls got better very quickly.
Next Page
Lt. Col. Fumio Manaka – Unsui Sensei
– smiles after having downed his
“opponent” and student, Shawn
Havens. This photo was taken at a
seminar in Atlanta, Georgia in October,
1999. (All images, unless otherwise
indicated, are courtesy and property of
Fumio Manaka and/or the Jinenkan.)
– smiles after having downed his
“opponent” and student, Shawn
Havens. This photo was taken at a
seminar in Atlanta, Georgia in October,
1999. (All images, unless otherwise
indicated, are courtesy and property of
Fumio Manaka and/or the Jinenkan.)
“Unsui,” “cloud” and “water,” by
Manaka Unsui Sensei
Manaka Unsui Sensei
The Jinenkan logo incorporates the
characters for “Jinenkan” and the
clouds and water of Manaka Sensei’s
martial name. There is also symbolism
created by the three levels of clouds,
the three characters, and the three
streams of water.
characters for “Jinenkan” and the
clouds and water of Manaka Sensei’s
martial name. There is also symbolism
created by the three levels of clouds,
the three characters, and the three
streams of water.
Takamatsu Toshitsugu
Sensei instructing
Masaaki Hatsumi in the
use of the jutte
Sensei instructing
Masaaki Hatsumi in the
use of the jutte
